Selection Criteria for Residency: Results of a National Program Directors Survey

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(This is a free article from Academic Medicine, click on the pic to visit the site)

Here is a great article published in the March 2009 edition of Academic Medicine (The Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges). Around 2,500 program directors across 21 specialties were sent questionnaires as to the importance of particular criteria used for residency selection. The top 5 criteria that were given by the program directors in order of importance to residency selection were:
(1) Grades in required clerkships,

(2) USMLE Step 1 score,

(3) Grades in senior electives in specialty,

(4) Number of honors grades,

(5) USMLE Step 2 Clinical Knowledge (CK) score.


 The USMLE Step 2 CK score ranks as a higher criteria for residency selection in less competitive specialties, whereas research experience is more prominent in the most competitive specialties. The survey used this criteria for determining the competitiveness for a particular specialty.

"Specialties with U.S. graduate fill rates between 61 and 80% were designated as being competitive. Specialties with U.S. graduate fill rates below 60% were designated as being less competitive."

Less-Competitive Specialties include: Psychiatry, Pathology, Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, Internal Medicine, Neurology, Family Medicine.
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